A Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC), which can be inserted in a mobile communication device and can be used as a smart card, has personal information about a mobile communication subscriber, such as network access certification information, a phonebook, and Short Message Service (SMS), stored therein. At the time of attachment to a mobile communication network such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), or Long Term Evolution (LTE), the UICC performs subscriber identification and traffic security key creation and thus allows a safe mobile communication. The UICC has a communication application, e.g., Subscriber Identification Module (SIM), Universal SIM (USIM), or Internet Protocol (IP) multimedia SIM (ISIM), mounted therein depending on the type of the mobile communication network, and also provides an upper-level security function for mounting various applications such as electronic wallet, ticketing, and electronic passports.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating two modes of connection to a mobile network by a removable UICC capable of being inserted into or removed from a typical device and by an embedded UICC (eUICC) embedded in the device according to the related art.
Referring to FIG. 1, a typical mode of connection to a mobile network performed by a removable UICC 100 is illustrated. Specifically, the UICC (or USIM) 100 is inserted into a device at operation 101, and then the device connects with a Mobile Network Operator (MNO) using various communication applications such as SIM, USIM, ISIM or the like depending on types of the mobile network to use a mobile communication service at operation 102.
Contrary to that, referring to FIG. 1, a mode of connection to the mobile network using an eUICC (or embedded SIM (eSIM)) is also illustrated. Initially, a profile is installed remotely using Over The Air (OTA) technology based on SMS. For this, the device may connect with another MNO identified as MNO2 using a provisioning profile stored previously in the eUICC at operation 103. Then if an operating profile of MNO joined by the user is downloaded and installed at operation 104, the device can connect with the mobile network at operation 105.
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a method for downloading a profile to an eUICC in each wearable device when there are many wearable devices having the eUICC according to the related art.
Referring to FIG. 2, when a user joins an MNO 100 to use a mobile network, the MNO 100 may offer a profile to the user through Subscription Manager Data Preparation (SM-DP) 110 and Subscription Manager Secure Routing (SM-SR) 120. Specifically, in response to a request of the MNO 100, the SM-DP 110 creates and encrypts a profile for a subscriber who desires to join the MNO and also transfers the encrypted profile to the SM-SR 120. Then the SM-SR 120, which is a server for performing a profile management for eUICC, safely transmits the encrypted profile, received from the SM-DP 110, to a secure module embedded in a corresponding device. After the profile is decrypted and installed in the eUICC, the SM-SR 120 may perform a profile management such as enabling, disabling or deleting the profile.
Referring to FIG. 2, some devices, e.g., a smart phone 101, used by the user essentially require the attachment to the mobile network to perform their inherent functions. However, some devices such as a watch 102, a wrist accessory 103 or glasses 104 can use, for user convenience, a certain service from the mobile network even though the attachment to the mobile network is not required to perform their inherent functions. These devices 102, 103 and 104 are often referred to as wearable devices. In order to download a profile for attaching to the mobile network, the eUICC of each wearable device should send a subscription for the mobile network to the MNO 100 and then download the profile from the SM-SR 120. When a single user has many wearable devices, an excessive burden may arise in the MNO 100, the SM-DP 110 and the SM-SR 120 having to individually download profiles to respective eUICCs of such devices.
The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the present disclosure. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with regard to the present disclosure.